A girl was walking along an autumn road. Her scarf, bundled up against her nose, fought the icy wind. She walked along the sidewalk, slowly and steadily. She was alone. The dark night was surrounding her, the dim crescent moon her only light. All of a sudden, lights were behind her. They were headlights. She turned around and saw the familiar face in the driver’s seat, smiling back at her. She slowly walked over, realizing if she got any slower, she’d lose her ability to walk at all. She reached him and fell into his arms with a surprising jolt. Madilynn sprang out of her trance. She quickly looked around the library for Miss Stracken. The librarians absolutely hated people sleeping during studyhall. “What’s wrong? You look like you saw a ghost.” Her best friend, Trina, was sitting beside her, A Tale of Two Cities laying open on the table in front of her. “Nothing really. Just had that dream again.” “Can’t you stop thinking about him?” Madilynn sighed, “Yeah, I can’t. It sucks.” “He’s just going through a phase. He does this sort of thing.” “It’s not that, it’s just…I can’t seem to get over him.” “You will eventually. Just wait till the next cutie comes along.”
“Okay, like who?” “Like him.” Madilynn followed Trina’s gaze over to the computer lab, where a boy sat playing video games. “Alex Vancuso?” “Uh…yeah! He is so adorable. Taran said he’s always talking about you.” “Why do you listen to Taran? He is the biggest - well, second biggest - gossiper I’ve ever met.” “Who’s the biggest?” “You.” Trina smiled. “I try.” “Either way, Alex and I have only had like, a couple real conversations with each other.” “So? Talk to him more! It wouldn’t hurt to have somebody to tell all your relationship problems to.” “Why would he want to hear about my past relationship? It’s not like he knows him, so he can’t like, beat him up.” “Madi, you know I wasn’t talking about that,” replied Trina, laughing. She grabbed her Psychology for Teenagers book, pushing her other homework aside. Flipping through the pages with deep concentration, Madilynn took another glance at Alex. His dark blonde hair couldn’t even have a chance in good looks with his gray-blue eyes. He held his focus to the computer screen, making sure to look around every five or ten minutes for Miss Stracken. He caught Madilynn’s gaze and smiled innocently. “Found it!” Trina practically yelled, stabbing the page with a black polished finger. Madilynn shook off the image of Alex as if she were dreaming again. Trina, not noticing, read the page she found, “Although in some cases talking about past relationships can be a bad thing, talking about them when a potential boyfriend/girlfriend is around can do some good. The potential can hear what the other is saying, making sure they do or don’t do the same things.” “What’s your point?” Madilynn asked, impatiently. “My point, dear Madi, is that he needs to hear you so he can be a better boyfriend than he ever was!” “You’re looking way too much into this, you know.” “Fine. If you don’t want to listen to my advice, ask Shaffer.” “Oh, so the psychology teacher is going to give me better advice than someone who’s just taken it for the past year? That’s got to be your best idea yet.” Trina laughed, “I most definitely thought so.” The bell rang and studyhall was over. Trina said her goodbyes and raced off to Chemistry at the other end of the school, leaving Madilynn to walk by herself to Algebra. Or so she thought. “Hey, Madi.” She whirled around to find Alex, looking down at her with piercing blue eyes, “Oh, hey. Don’t scare me like that.” Alex smiled, “Sorry.” Madilynn was never that good at small talk. Most of the time she just stayed behind her group of friends waiting until somebody began talking to her. “Uh…how was your game?” “I did pretty good. Killed a lot of other players today. Personal record for me. Too bad the school has no idea that RPGs aren’t blocked like everything else.” “What were you playing?”
“Runescape. Almost got caught by Stracken today. Just like you almost got caught dozing off.” “I…I did?” “Yeah. But she kept her attention on me. I had to explain that I was doing a project about how video games make your brain cells rot. By the time she had looked back over at you, you were awake.” Madi sighed, “Good.” At this point, they had reached Mr. Austin, the algebra teacher’s room. Madi waved Alex off and went into class, only thinking about when she had free time to go see Shaffer. *** Mr. Shaffer’s classroom, although small, was quite homey. He had a personal space in the back, which he used when people came to him for counseling (it used to be a storage closet, but he got it renovated for his use. He called it “The Office.”) Inside was some chairs, a small coffee machine, and a bookshelf, along with pictures on the walls for decoration. Madi was never inside The Office; she just heard good things about it. But now that she did see it for the first time, it was as nice as people said it was. Shaffer was inside reading a book. He always told his students, Trina had said, that if he wasn’t in his classroom, he’d be in The Office. He looked up when he saw Madi, and set the book back in the shelf beside him. “Hello, there,” he said, standing up and extending his hand, “I don’t think I’ve ever met you before. Have you ever been in here?” “No,” Madi replied, “I’m Madilynn Fox. Trina Carrigan told me about this place.” “Ah, yes. Trina is one of my best students. What can I do for you?” “Yes, please. I need some advice on something…”
Repeat, repeat, repeat. It seemed that all Gabe was capable of was pushing the repeat button on his iPod. The song was Far Away by Nickelback. He had sang it to her at winter formal. She was the only person he ever sang to. Nobody else had ever heard it. He shut his eyes and pictured that moment for the fourth time. Repeat. The way the lights were glimmering. The way the glitter in her hair sparkled. The way she looked at him. He remembered everything to exact detail, from the people around him to the dress she wore. All day he had been sitting in his room, listening to music. Every song he listened to reminded him of her, but one seemed to stick out for Gabe. Repeat. He opened his eyes and looked at the clock. He’d been listening to the same song for at least an hour now. It seemed like days going by, just sitting alone in his room. Repeat. He shut his eyes and continued his reverie. The memory of her that night gave him chills. He just couldn’t decide if they were good chills or bad chills. She had given him nothing but love and he gave her hurt in return. He wanted to apologize for everything, but he couldn’t. When he’d start, he would never stop. He tried everything in his power to never hurt her, but she wouldn’t understand his mistake. Mistake, he thought. He made a mistake, that was true, but he couldn’t pinprick what that exact mistake was. Or, maybe it was a lot of mistakes coming together to make one large one. He couldn’t figure it out. One thing didn’t make any sense, moreso than the rest. Why was he still hung up over something that happened several months before? He couldn’t understand. Then again, he didn’t understand a lot these days… Repeat. Repeat. Repeat
A girl was walking along an autumn road. Her scarf, bundled up against her nose, fought the icy wind. She walked along the sidewalk, slowly and steadily. She was alone. The dark night was surrounding her, the dim crescent moon her only light. All of a sudden, lights were behind her. They were headlights. She turned around and saw the familiar face in the driver’s seat, smiling back at her. She slowly walked over, realizing if she got any slower, she’d lose her ability to walk at all. She reached him and fell into his arms with a surprising jolt.
Madilynn sprang out of her trance. She quickly looked around the library for Miss Stracken. The librarians absolutely hated people sleeping during studyhall.
“What’s wrong? You look like you saw a ghost.” Her best friend, Trina, was sitting beside her, A Tale of Two Cities laying open on the table in front of her.
“Nothing really. Just had that dream again.”
“Can’t you stop thinking about him?”
Madilynn sighed, “Yeah, I can’t. It sucks.”
“He’s just going through a phase. He does this sort of thing.”
“It’s not that, it’s just…I can’t seem to get over him.”
“You will eventually. Just wait till the next cutie comes along.”
“Okay, like who?”
“Like him.” Madilynn followed Trina’s gaze over to the computer lab, where a boy sat playing video games.
“Alex Vancuso?”
“Uh…yeah! He is so adorable. Taran said he’s always talking about you.”
“Why do you listen to Taran? He is the biggest - well, second biggest - gossiper I’ve ever met.”
“Who’s the biggest?”
“You.”
Trina smiled. “I try.”
“Either way, Alex and I have only had like, a couple real conversations with each other.”
“So? Talk to him more! It wouldn’t hurt to have somebody to tell all your relationship problems to.”
“Why would he want to hear about my past relationship? It’s not like he knows him, so he can’t like, beat him up.”
“Madi, you know I wasn’t talking about that,” replied Trina, laughing. She grabbed her Psychology for Teenagers book, pushing her other homework aside. Flipping through the pages with deep concentration, Madilynn took another glance at Alex. His dark blonde hair couldn’t even have a chance in good looks with his gray-blue eyes. He held his focus to the computer screen, making sure to look around every five or ten minutes for Miss Stracken. He caught Madilynn’s gaze and smiled innocently.
“Found it!” Trina practically yelled, stabbing the page with a black polished finger. Madilynn shook off the image of Alex as if she were dreaming again. Trina, not noticing, read the page she found, “Although in some cases talking about past relationships can be a bad thing, talking about them when a potential boyfriend/girlfriend is around can do some good. The potential can hear what the other is saying, making sure they do or don’t do the same things.”
“What’s your point?” Madilynn asked, impatiently.
“My point, dear Madi, is that he needs to hear you so he can be a better boyfriend than he ever was!”
“You’re looking way too much into this, you know.”
“Fine. If you don’t want to listen to my advice, ask Shaffer.”
“Oh, so the psychology teacher is going to give me better advice than someone who’s just taken it for the past year? That’s got to be your best idea yet.”
Trina laughed, “I most definitely thought so.”
The bell rang and studyhall was over. Trina said her goodbyes and raced off to Chemistry at the other end of the school, leaving Madilynn to walk by herself to Algebra.
Or so she thought. “Hey, Madi.”
She whirled around to find Alex, looking down at her with piercing blue eyes, “Oh, hey. Don’t scare me like that.”
Alex smiled, “Sorry.”
Madilynn was never that good at small talk. Most of the time she just stayed behind her group of friends waiting until somebody began talking to her. “Uh…how was your game?”
“I did pretty good. Killed a lot of other players today. Personal record for me. Too bad the school has no idea that RPGs aren’t blocked like everything else.”
“What were you playing?”
“Runescape. Almost got caught by Stracken today. Just like you almost got caught dozing off.”
“I…I did?”
“Yeah. But she kept her attention on me. I had to explain that I was doing a project about how video games make your brain cells rot. By the time she had looked back over at you, you were awake.”
Madi sighed, “Good.”
At this point, they had reached Mr. Austin, the algebra teacher’s room. Madi waved Alex off and went into class, only thinking about when she had free time to go see Shaffer.
***
Mr. Shaffer’s classroom, although small, was quite homey. He had a personal space in the back, which he used when people came to him for counseling (it used to be a storage closet, but he got it renovated for his use. He called it “The Office.”) Inside was some chairs, a small coffee machine, and a bookshelf, along with pictures on the walls for decoration. Madi was never inside The Office; she just heard good things about it. But now that she did see it for the first time, it was as nice as people said it was.
Shaffer was inside reading a book. He always told his students, Trina had said, that if he wasn’t in his classroom, he’d be in The Office. He looked up when he saw Madi, and set the book back in the shelf beside him. “Hello, there,” he said, standing up and extending his hand, “I don’t think I’ve ever met you before. Have you ever been in here?”
“No,” Madi replied, “I’m Madilynn Fox. Trina Carrigan told me about this place.”
“Ah, yes. Trina is one of my best students. What can I do for you?”
“Yes, please. I need some advice on something…”
Repeat, repeat, repeat. It seemed that all Gabe was capable of was pushing the repeat button on his iPod. The song was Far Away by Nickelback. He had sang it to her at winter formal. She was the only person he ever sang to. Nobody else had ever heard it. He shut his eyes and pictured that moment for the fourth time.
Repeat.
The way the lights were glimmering. The way the glitter in her hair sparkled. The way she looked at him. He remembered everything to exact detail, from the people around him to the dress she wore.
All day he had been sitting in his room, listening to music. Every song he listened to reminded him of her, but one seemed to stick out for Gabe.
Repeat.
He opened his eyes and looked at the clock. He’d been listening to the same song for at least an hour now. It seemed like days going by, just sitting alone in his room.
Repeat.
He shut his eyes and continued his reverie. The memory of her that night gave him chills. He just couldn’t decide if they were good chills or bad chills. She had given him nothing but love and he gave her hurt in return. He wanted to apologize for everything, but he couldn’t. When he’d start, he would never stop. He tried everything in his power to never hurt her, but she wouldn’t understand his mistake.
Mistake, he thought. He made a mistake, that was true, but he couldn’t pinprick what that exact mistake was. Or, maybe it was a lot of mistakes coming together to make one large one. He couldn’t figure it out. One thing didn’t make any sense, moreso than the rest. Why was he still hung up over something that happened several months before? He couldn’t understand. Then again, he didn’t understand a lot these days…
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat